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Pipeline Workshops: Right for you?

Homebuilding production has to be managed as a system; without that systems-level understanding, production cannot be managed well, if at all. Unfortunately, that type of ordered, process-centric, capacity-focused thinking is not the homebuilding industry’s natural tendency; it clashes with the deal-driven, product-centric, margin-focused mentality that dominates homebuilding.

That understanding is going to be critical, because in the industry that is slowly emerging from the worst recession in three-quarters of a century, it’s not going to be a choice between higher margin or higher velocity; it’s going to be the necessity of producing higher margins at higher velocities.

Sustainable competitive separation comes from doing both, and doing both of them well.

Pipeline workshops are a two-day immersion into the production physics – into the principles and disciplines – that enable homebuilders to thrive on the velocity side of economic return, that enable builders to thrive on the velocity side of Return on Assets. The understanding and expertise delivered in a Pipeline workshop pulls extensively from The Pipeline: A Picture of Homebuilding Production.

Pipeline workshops are designed to transfer in-depth knowledge and create an intuitive, instinctive understanding of production principles and disciplines, focused specifically on homebuilding production management. Pipeline workshops are not a lecture series; the material is comprehensive, the learning is intense, and the format is interactive and competitive; attendance is capped at 40 attendees.

In a Pipeline workshop, the principles and disciplines governing homebuilding production are taught through effective presentation, but they are learned through application. Pipeline workshops use a progressive series of production scenarios that simulate homebuilding production in the real business world, in an environment of variation and uncertainty, where operating decisions produce economic results – sometimes good, oft-times bad, occasionally meeting or exceeding the budgeted performance, oft-times not.

Those results – good or bad, sufficient or deficient – are diagnosed at the conclusion of each game, so that the connection between operating decisions and business outcomes is clarified, and the principles and disciplines explained in the workshop sessions are reinforced.

What you gain from a Pipeline workshop:

a strong, visual image of a homebuilding production system – its purpose, size, cost, and capacity.

an elegant understanding of how operating decisions drive business outcomes, and how the measures of operating performance connect to the measures of profitability and economic return.

an ordered manner of thinking and reasoning about the relationship and interaction of the dependent parts that comprise a homebuilding production system.

a systemic approach to solving production problems and managing finite production capacity.

a blended approach to process and project portfolio management that addresses the unique attributes and parameters of homebuilding production.

a way of managing homebuilding production that significantly reduces build/cycle times, increases production throughput, and controls construction work-in-process.

Is a Pipeline workshop right for you? Pipeline workshops are not about job titles, operational scope, or company size. They are intended for anyone charged with the critical responsibility of managing – or managing the interaction with – homebuilding production as a system at some level of a homebuilding enterprise; Pipeline workshops are for those who must understand and manage homebuilding production, and drive results, including:

C-Level Executives – Presidents, CEOs, CFO’s

Divisions and Regional Managers

Vice Presidents of Operations and Construction

Vice Presidents of Sales

Production Managers

Construction Managers

The next Pipeline workshop will be held at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on October 15-16, 2014. Cost is $795.00. Early registration, open through August 15, 2014, is $645.00.

Pipeline Workshops™

Pipeline Workshops™, sponsored by BUILDER and BuilderMT, are designed to transfer in-depth knowledge and create an intuitive, instinctive understanding of production principles and disciplines, focused specifically on homebuilding production management.